A deadly joke

December 10th, 2012, 05:13

Originally Posted by joxer
…such job where you can be completely irresponsible, where you can take just anyone as your victim…

Are you referring to the police here ?
Similarly, didn't you ever drive your car and exceed the speed limit like… never ? If so, then you may get the point. Anyway, I still feel that you seem too strong of a moralizer to be absolutely sincere and honest (sorry about that but still)

2DAY FM duo Mel Greig and Michael Christian say they are "shattered, gutted, (and) heartbroken" over the tragic end to their prank call controversy. The suspected suicide of UK nurse Jacintha Saldanha had torn the young radio presenters apart, with Greig telling A Current Affair "the thought that we may have played a part in that is gutwrenching."
Speaking in person for the first time since news of Mrs Saldanha’s death was confirmed by King Edward VII Hospital early Saturday, the pair wept at times during the Channel 9 interview, admitting the "simple harmless phone call" had been the joint idea of their production team.
Christian said: “it was just the team sitting down before the show …(we) just had the idea for just a simple harmless phone call. That we thought about making a call it was going to go for 30 seconds we were going to be hung up on, and that was it. As innocent as that.”

Greig added: "we thought a hundred people before us would've tried it, we thought it was such a silly idea and the accents were terrible and not for a second did we expect to speak to Kate let alone have a conversation with anyone at the hospital. We wanted to be hung up on."
The pair were told about the death of Mrs Saldanha in a telephone call, a moment described by Grieg as "the worst phone call I’ve ever had in my life."
Asked their reaction, both broke down in tears, with Greig revealing: "there’s not a minute that goes by where we don’t think about her family and what they must be going through and the thought we may have played a part in that is gutwrenching."
Greig said: "these prank calls are made every day, on every radio station, in every country around the world and they have been for a long time and no-one could’ve imagined this to happen."

@Corwin > For those throwing stones at these guys, have thought about what they are actually going through right now ? Living in France, I can say I've heard and seen (on TV) telephone pranks far more mind boggling -in a bad way- than that one, leading to no consequences other than a good laugh and sometimes tears of laughters.

@Corwin > For those throwing stones at these guys, have thought about what they are actually going through right now ? Living in France, I can say I've heard and seen (on TV) telephone pranks far more mind boggling -in a bad way- than that one, leading to no consequences other than a good laugh and sometimes tears of laughters.

What remains of my critisizms is that they should have called back and asked if they could broadcast it. That applies to all broadcasted pranks whether it's phone calls or hidden camera, and it doesn't spoil the fun.

I feel sorry for them as well as the nurse.

pibbur who thinks it's important to have more than one thought in his head

Originally Posted by xSamhainx
I'm sorry, if someone indeed did kill themselves over something so stupid, you know what - they dont deserve life. We are better off without them. Good riddance

I just hope they didnt procreate before they did it

You're joking right? Tell me that's not your actual position.

As for prank calls - I think they're a very sorry excuse for entertainment. It's pre-teen humor that has no place amongst adults - but then again, some people enjoy watching crashes or people who slip and hurt themselves.

DArtagnan

Originally Posted by xSamhainx
I'm sorry, if someone indeed did kill themselves over something so stupid, you know what - they dont deserve life. We are better off without them. Good riddance

I just hope they didnt procreate before they did it

If someone kills himself over something that stupid, it usually means that there is more to it, often a long history of unhappines or even depression. Comments like yours are saddening. Maybe next time let your brain do the talking, ask your heart for advice, and tell your gut to shut the fuck up.

As for prank calls - I think they're a very sorry excuse for entertainment. It's pre-teen humor that has no place amongst adults - but then again, some people enjoy watching crashes or people who slip and hurt themselves.

What can I say, people are generally not very impressive beings.

Actually, some prank calls can be very funny, if they are well prepared and elegantly performed. They're far between (correct English?), but they do exist. At least they did when I was a kid.

Originally Posted by pibbur who
Actually, some prank calls can be very funny, if they are well prepared and elegantly performed. They're far between (correct English?), but they do exist. At least they did when I was a kid.

This particular prank was not one of those.

pibbur who suddenly is in memory mode

I'm sure you think so, but I don't. Then again, my sense of humor is different from that of most people.

I think it's weak and pointless - but it's not like I have a big problem with prank calls - I just think it's a nauseatingly obvious way to make a joke. Everyone is an easy target and it takes nothing to fool them. I just don't see how that's funny.

I'm one of those people who thinks that if you're going to make a joke in public, you should be original or you shouldn't make it in public, especially not when it's at the expense of other people. Tasteless.

DArtagnan

What remains of my critisizms is that they should have called back and asked if they could broadcast it. That applies to all broadcasted pranks whether it's phone calls or hidden camera, and it doesn't spoil the fun.

I feel sorry for them as well as the nurse.

pibbur who thinks it's important to have more than one thought in his head

12 days

According to the radio station, they made 5 attempts to call back, but got no answer. Pranks are silly IMO, but this is a station (from my understanding) which targets the teen/young adult audience who enjoy such things.

Originally Posted by dteowner
Seems like a wildly excessive and misplaced result, but not at all surprising given our ever-growing need to assign blame to some external factor any time something bad occurs.

Wise words.

Prank calls (whether we like them or not) are a common thing. How could have anyone forseen this tragic outcome? Radiostations do this kind of pranks every morning around the globe. Its very unfortunate if this prank call was the last drop that spilled this person's meantal health. Besides we don't really know what caused it. She could have had self-destructive thoughs way before that sad morning. Many number of things could have set her on this dark path.

These hosts as immature as they were couldn't have imagined their prank ending this way. Should they take responssibility? Its defiently tasteless and wrong to trick nurses this way. I think most people want their medical info stay condifental, but in my opinion they didn't cause this person's death. The line has to be drawn somewhere.

Originally Posted by Dez
Prank calls (whether we like them or not) are a common thing.

Not in every country nor in every culture. For god's sakes I've heard that such radio show even exists a few days ago on this forum in this thread. I've never heard of such show before.

See… There was a time when to marry a 9year old girl was a common thing, hell even a religion was made out of it. But it wasn't common everywhere and definetly not in every culture. Corwin knows more about it.

In the end, whatever is common to you doesn't mean you should not respect other countries and other cultures where things like that are not common.

A question for the thread author - does such show exist in Germany?
I don't know the answer, but IIRC in Germany pretending to be someone else unless in ongoing undercover investigation is illegal.

If I was the nurse, I wouldn't be able to come over the SHAME of being tricked although I was relegated to help and protect A FUTURE QUEEN !

To some people, this might be real worse. Years later : "Ah, so you are the person who fell victim to a phoney call instead of protecting our queen ?"

Everyone in the street would know her. "Ah, so you are the one … How stupid you are that you got tricked by a SIMPLE phone call !"

What i really miss in this discussion is the try to view it from her point of view. All I read here is people who are argueing from the guys perspective - or from the perspective of an outsider.

These "trick calls" are not uncommon here, too - but only against "mortals".

This "trick call" was against a future QUEEN, and if you fail this "test", then you are burned forever for your whole life. Everyone will know you. Everyone will laugh over you. Everyone will make jokes about you. And you won't get a medal for service the Queen, either.
Rather the opposite.

I think - I might not be right, but that's what I think - that most people in this discussion here just don't realize how Queen-centric the Brits are. At least that's the impression I get from overseas.

Another point is the definition of "harmless [call]". In my opinion these guys didn't even have a plan. They didn't even apologize. Instead, they congratulated each other opf having overthrown a simple nurse, who was kind of assigned to protect and help a future Queen (some people take this stuff dead serious !).
I get the impression as if they were simply "doing without thinking [of possible consequences]". The impression I get is that of two immature guys doing a prank - without thinking of any consequences. They definitively didn't give this thing a thought. It's a form of selfishness.

By the way, today's newspaper also pointed out that it was the management who gave green light into sending it.

-- “ Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.“ (E.F.Schumacher, Economist, Source)

I agree with you DTE. I think sacking them is an over reaction. Who knew this would have happened? If we can't play good-natured pranks or jokes on one another for fear of pushing a mentally unstable person over the edge, then the world will suck even more.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
They didn't even apologize. Instead, they congratulated each other opf having overthrown a simple nurse, who was kind of assigned to protect and help a future Queen (some people take this stuff dead serious !).